As a tech coach at the start of the year, Google Classroom and the summer’s updates to Google Apps have been a frequent conversation topic. At our Tech Tuesday drop in professional learning, we’ve explored Topics, the Parent/Guardian features, Google Cast, and more.

I’ve written a lot about how I use Google Classroom in my classes (find my articles Classroom here) but I don’t think I’ve written explicitly about this piece of advice:

Make everything an assignment and post it all on Google Classroom.

Classroom offers options for questions, announcements, and more, but assignments are almost always the best choice in my practice. And here’s why: accountability, consistency, and the calendar.

Accountability

Watching the numbers of done/not done change as students turn in work is one of the greatest management features that Classroom provides. The organization and sorting of papers and files just became instant and easy. But I want my students to be responsible for communicating when that work is done.

This means that I always ask students to turn in or mark as done when work is complete. Otherwise, it’s the technological equivalent of leaving the paper in their backpacks. They need to be responsible for turning it in so I know it’s ready for feedback.

Consistency

As more and more technology becomes a part of our classroom, it can be overwhelming for everyone--both students and teachers. I want to offer consistency for my students to find their work and turn in assignments. This means that I put EVERYTHING on Classroom, and always make it an assignment, no matter what.

Read 10 pages? Annotate the text? Finish the lab? Write the paper? The task and it’s outcome doesn’t matter but marking the work as done or turning it in on Classroom makes it easy to monitor progress and make it easier for students to succeed.

I know a lot of teachers who maintain and update their own calendars to share assignments with students and parents. Classroom will do this work for you, provided that you add it as an assignment. Announcements (or work without a due date) does not get added to the calendar, providing easy transparency to help everyone stay on task.

Always Assignments?

The assignment feature is the best practice I’ve found so far with Classroom. That said, I don’t like absolutes and there’s not one right way to make technology work for you. Please share your thoughts and how you use (or don’t) Classroom and the assignment feature. I’d love to hear your views and for you to share your best practices in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

Back to School night is this week, and I’ve been thinking a lot about it. I think I’ve always given a hopefully engaging ten minute performance for parents, but that’s really what it is. Ten minutes of the teacher talking at parents, often quickly and densely enough to avoid questions. And it’s a broken system in a lot of ways--who is that good for? It’s certainly not the culture or style of classroom nor the message about learning I want to share.

So instead, I’m refocusing my efforts towards a conversation about relationships. Building relationships and shifting culture has definitely been a theme in my teaching and work so far this year, and it shouldn’t stop with students. I’m sure I have a full post in me about back to school night and family engagement, but these thoughts led me to important questions:

How can I use the technology we use in our classroom to better connect and communicate with families? How can the tech be leveraged for stronger relationships in the students’ out of school worlds, too?

Again, these big ideas deserve more space that I’m dedicating to them here. Don’t worry, I’ll explore them more soon.

Instead I want to share small, easy, and still powerful ways I’m using technology to move from focusing on reminders to building culture.

Break Down Classroom Walls

Share the learning going on inside our classroom walls with parents, families, and the world. Create a parent group on Remind, use a class web site, or share on Twitter by posting pictures, videos, and learning activities online to help break down the classroom walls. No matter the tool or technology, the more families can understand and connect to what goes on in our classrooms, the better the students’ learning will be.

This quote below from George Couros is a favorite. What if we encouraged students to share, too? How could that impact relationships, culture, and learning?

Open Lines of Communication

I want to be in touch with all of my parents and students all the time about their successes and challenges. The personal phone call home is essential, but e-mails, online portals, web sites, and reminders are all valuable tools to maintain consistent and effective communication.

With that, I really want to invite families into my classroom and their students learning, and to open the lines of communication. I’ll reach out as much as necessary or possible, but truthfully it can be tough with one teacher and so many students. So I want my students and teachers to send e-mails, post questions on Classroom, and send chats on Remind. Let’s use these tools to provide more opportunities for success.

Positive Messages

After I plan a new lesson or assignment, I usually turn right to Google Classroom and Remind. On Google Classroom, I schedule the assignment to post in the appropriate class. Then, using Remind I schedule at least one reminders to help keep students on task. Sometimes I add my parent Remind classes, too.

But lately I’ve added another layer to this. In addition--and instead of--sending just reminders, I want to use this space to connect to my students by sharing positive or motivational messages. I started with a Kid President meme and a writing reminder, but now the ideas are spinning. I want to send memes, quotes, and other fun and positive messages from time to time. I do this a lot on Twitter but know that many students are more likely to see, read, and react when the message comes on a Remind text. This is an idea to explore more.

Back to Back to School

These are some of the things I hope to talk with families and parents about at back to school night this week. I’ll emphasize the talk with, as opposed to at. I want to share strategies for us to connect and communicate, resources to learn about our class, and all of the ways to help their students succeed. I also want to model the real learning and culture that takes place every day.

Let’s see how it goes. I’ll report back soon and share both my thoughts on this year’s event and my plans to improve in the future.

What’s your best back to school night advice or experience? Share in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

When students are more involved in monitoring their own learning, learn how to provide constructive feedback, and are given opportunities to grow, the learning is better and more meaningful. That’s the message I’ve been trying to convey to my students this year.

Last week, I wrote about my efforts to move towards more Student Reflection & Self Assessment, sharing the form I used for students to evaluate their progress so far. I explained that while I hoped to learn more about ways to provide effective feedback and change my grading practices, for now I was committed to renegotiating the power of the grade by engaging students in the process.

Now, it’s a week later and my students have completed two reflection forms. And their responses were thoughtful, interesting, and generally accurate. I’m thankful for that. It means that I have a strong foundation to build from in helping students develop their skills, meta-cognition, and self/peer evaluations and feedback.

Let’s take a look at what they said.

Here, I listed our classroom activities and asked students to evaluate their performance. Students were definitely honest here, reporting back fairly accurately.

This pie chart shows the variety in the grades the students argued for. They ranged from 65-100, with an average grade of 91. My sophomores are mostly doing great so far (and it had only been a week or so of school), so this didn’t surprise me.

Then, they were asked to justify their scores. Here are some of their responses:

I believe that my work is good but not great but I really don't think i deserve less than an 80 because my work has been up to task and pretty good if i say so myself.

In all honesty, I know I can do better than what I have shown you so far and I'll be sure to show you what I am capable of.

I believe that i earned that grade because everyday i come prepared and ready to work. I'm always on task and engaging in class discussions and I feel like I was collaborating good with my class-mates on the breakout challenge. Also, on the community, I wrote my responses thoroughly and with a great deal of evidence and I even attached a link with work I did last year relating to out topic.

I participate in class, I'm always here on time I complete my work within the time you give us and during the breakout edu event I helped unlock one of the locks and my summer assignment was on time but the Kahoot was not my best work.

I believe that for every assignment I have done in this class I have done the best I could have possibly done. The responses that I wrote were my best writing and for my summer assignment I constantly was editing and revising it; my mom even read it over to help me fix my mistakes. In class for the pre-assessment I used my knowledge of writing skills that I learned last year and I wrote to the best of my ability. I think I have participated and worked well with my classmates so far in the school year and I feel that I earned a 100 for my classwork so far.

I don't think I did amazing for the King Speech, but I think I proved myself in discussions during class. I really enjoyed the BreakoutEDU and I contributed a whole lot to that, trying to find creative ways to get out of our situation. I even e-mailed Father Vint! Anyways, for the pre-assessment, I found strong evidence and it was even a literary element. I placed second for Kahoot :) I feel like I know how to research very well, which is why I am confident of the work I put on the community. Plus, I think I raise my hand to try and contribute something to discussions, which is why I think I deserve a 98.

Not only do I try hard to think critically about text I'm reading or information I obtain, but I genuinely love finding the deeper meaning of what is initially said. When I am given a longer amount of time to analyze and interpret my work I try my best to perform this task, which has been included in every assignment we have done so far.

These responses made me proud. They made me happy. And they made me hopeful. Sure I want my students to perform well, but I also want them to be able to think and reflect critically. These students showed real thought and reflection throughout, defended their choices with specific evidence, and found meaning in our time together.

When asked about the most meaningful activity of the year, most wrote about #BreakoutEDU, focusing on collaboration and team building. Some wrote about writing and our Google Community, which surprised me, too. Here’s one response to playing Time Warp with #BreakoutEDU: “The most meaningful learning activity was the BreakoutEDU. It helped show me that when learning or doing an assignment, it is important to utilize all of your resources, and it is acceptable - and sometimes necessary! - to ask for help from others. (These were things I already knew, but it helped give me a real life basis for the concepts, and a positive learning experience.)”

For changes in the class, students asked for more discussion, creative writing, and fun learning opportunities. I hope to oblige.

Next Steps

This was an enlightening and powerful exercise for me. I want to do more of it and get better at how we respond to each other’s work and ideas. Tomorrow, I’ll be sorting through my students’ self-evaluations again, this time focusing on their writing and analysis of a Martin Luther King Jr. speech. I’m curious to see how their reflection and thought translates to the academic skills of the English classroom and how I can continue to push students to reflect and grow.

What are your favorite strategies for using student feedback and reflection in the classroom? Share in the comments below or on Twitter.

I guess I really like #edcamps. It didn’t hit me until preparing this post, but over the past two years, I’ve planned three, participated in over a dozen, and written about edcamps many, many times. From planning #edcampMville for the public or #edcampOHS for my school, I’ve loved it all. The organic and authentic nature of edcamp-style learning is powerful, transformative, and slightly addicting.

On Saturday, we held the second annual #edcampMville at Manhattanville College. Last year’s event was the first in our area and was help in Reid Castle, a beautiful scenic landmark on the college campus. We had about 70 attendees and it was small, intimate, and a great start. I wrote all about it in My Big #edcamp Weekend: From #edcampMville to #edcampHV.

This year, we made a push to grow and evolve. We wanted to day to be even better, and we got better, too. We grew to over 100 attendees, and you can learn more about the day through Storify or Participate Learning. Based on my own observations and participant feedback, there are four new things I think we did right. And as always, there’s plenty more to work on for the future to continue to make professional learning powerful.

1. Waiting for Fall

This may be obvious, but educators are more ready to learn and prepare for the school year in September than in August. Last year’s event was on the last day Saturday before school started. And it was nice out; It’s a tough time to give up. This year, we moved to mid-September, the perfect time to get inspired for the new school year.

And we saw the results in our higher attendance, social media presence, and interest in our district, communities, and the college.

2. College Matters

#edcampMville is on a college campus, filled with education majors and professors. Last year, we didn’t have enough of a connection with the college and their students, faculty, and staff. This year, though, we worked hard to improve those connections and invite them into the learning.

As a result, around a dozen professors and even more education students attended the event. There were flyers everywhere and we were constantly promoted on social media. It was great to be able to work together to reach more educators and educators-to-be, and I think this inclusivity changed the culture of the day. The Manhattanville presence complimented the hundred-or-so K12 educators from all over NY, NJ, CT, and more.

3. Prizes All Day

Last year, we gave out t-shirts and small prizes, usually in response to Twitter or Remind challenges. “The next two people to Tweet a selfie with a new friend get to pick a shirt,” and that kind of thing. It was a lot of fun and people left will all kinds of swag. Prizes and raffles aren’t necessary, but they sure are a nice reward for dedicating a Saturday to learning.

But the end-of-the-day raffle? It was looooong. We raffled off so much great stuff from our generous sponsors: edtech subscriptions, books, makerspace supplies, and more. But it took so much time and was a little anticlimatic and slow as an end to a great day. So this year, we decided to only raffle the big items for the end of the day, like the digital camera or interactive whiteboards. We also attached some prizes to sessions; win a #BreakoutEDU kit after playing or Explore Like a Pirate in a gamification session. This meant that everything else was given out throughout the learning, sharing the wealth all day long, and I think it helped build a buzz and excitement for the learning and connecting.

4. We Got Smarter

Running an event takes a lot of work. From space to food to sponsors to promotion, there’s so much to do. We did a nice job last year, but really improved as organizers this time around. Crowdsourcing #Edcamp Advice: Building a Better #edcampMVille inspired me last year, and then we looked to our successful neighbors like #edcampNJ, #edcampSWCT, and #edcampHV for further inspiration.

We streamlined our raffles, added a photobooth, worked harder for sponsorship, and promoted so much more than ever before. And we were able to do this because of our first #edcampMville experience and by collaborating as a team. I’m thankful to have worked with an awesome team of organizers and to have run another successful event.

2017 & Beyond

As always, I want to continue to grow. We improved and had a great day, but there’s always room to do better. The energy and interest of so many first-time edcampers and college students/faculty was awesome, but I think we should work harder at setting expectations for edcamp. The blank schedule, rule of two feet, and conversation-based culture make it so different than the typical conference.

We want to continue to move from sage-on-the-stage style presentations to facilitated discussions of professional learning: problem solving, conversations, and hands-on learning.

A great suggestion from our feedback was to create an “idea board” so that participants could post their interests for learning without volunteering a session. Then, we can help find facilitators or promote a more meaningful discussion. This year, we were left with a few sessions without traditional facilitators, and some worked better than others. I jumped in to lead a discussion on Google Classroom, and was happy to do so, but I love the idea of gathering topics of interest to inform to session board creation.

This year, I also hope to do more to bring the edcamp model to my school and district, and to continue to develop meaningful and disruptive professional learning. Edcamps help us think about conferences and learning differently, and I’m the better for it.

What are your favorite #edcamp or professional learning experiences? Share in the comments or on Twitter at @MrSchoenbart.

Instead of spending my time on grading, I want to use it to give stronger feedback, help students grow, and build better relationships. These are ideas I’ve mentioned over and over in the past few months of writing, and I’m ready to bring them to practice.

I’ve explored research and articles on the value of students’ self-assessing and reflecting on their progress, and decided to start the second week of classes with students making arguments for their own grades.

In the long run, I want to move away from traditional grading but am still trying to find balance as I learn more about effective systems and practices. My school uses numeric grades, and for now, I’m going to make that work for me. But instead of using grades as power, I want them to represent learning and growth as best as possible. I always used rubrics, but I’ve decided that to make them mean more to students and to learning, the students need to be the driving force in that process.

In the past, I’ve found great success in student reflection, metacognition, and self-evaluation throughout my Genius Hour projects. I share that work in What Students Think About #Genius Hour Part 1 am ready to expand this idea throughout my classes.

The Reflection Form

Click hereto copy the form if you’re interested. Here are the directions I provided:

The most meaningful and long-term learning occurs with specific feedback and opportunities for growth. Research shows great improvements in student achievement when students monitor their own progress and self-assess their learning.Grades communicate what you know, what you can do, and what you have learned. How can you demonstrate your new learning and ideas? Consider the fundamentals of English (reading, writing, speaking, etc.) along with the 4 Cs of 21st Century Learning (critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity.Use this reflection form to reflect on your progress so far and make an argument for your grade for the first two weeks of English 10.A copy of the form results will be send to your OHS e-mail address. You can finish this form by clicking the link to edit from that e-mail.

Using Google Form’s settings, I restricted the form to my domain, collected usernames, and send an automatic confirmation receipt. I love this last feature because it also provided students with a link to edit their responses, too.

In part one (above), I was looking for some data about students’ overall understanding and progress. I was especially interested in how their perceived their contributions to class so far. In the future, I want to generalize these ideas to create a form that students can use throughout the year with minimal editing. Or even better, I’ll have students describe the learning activities for the rows.

In part two, I ask students to grade themselves and justify their choice. I still don’t love the numeric grade aspect, but I do love the metacognition and reflection they showed in their writing here. I like these questions but will likely tweak my description of student expectations. I’d love some ideas for this part.

Moving Forward

The student responses for this form were incredibly thoughtful and thorough. They showed real reflection, and seemed honest and accurate, overall. Next week, I’ll share some of the big ideas from their reflections along with their feedback on the reflection process as a whole. This week, students are working with their summer assignments through literary analysis, discussion, and group work. They will reflect and evaluate this work, too.

Once it comes to larger and summative learning, I plan to work hard on effective peer and self-assessments, so that students can help each other grow. Then, I can continue to give feedback that matters, while demystifying the power of the grade.

How do you use reflection and self-assessment in your teaching? What suggestions do you have to improve my work-in-progress? Please share in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

It’s about a week into classes for the new school year and my mind is racing. Every day (really every hour), I have new ideas for lessons, discussion, and improvements. It’s that crucial part of the beginning when we’re all trying to find balance, set expectations, and go from learning all the names to guiding students on adventures in English.

And my mind won’t stop racing. So I decided to embrace it, and to focus on a collection of shorter reflections here with a stream of consciousness approach. I like the authenticity and the change from my typical longer and focused pieces. Let’s see how it goes.

#WhatStuck

Like many teachers, I love post its. We use both literal post its and digital equivalents as formative assessment, check ins, and exit tickets all the time. Last week, students posted “what stuck” on our door at the end of class reflecting on #BreakoutEDU. Today, I’ll write about what has stuck for me so far this school year.

The Freshmen Adjustment

The last class of freshmen I taught in English are now seniors in college. This year, though, I asked to move back to freshman to change things up and push myself. I like the idea of being the students’ introduction to high school and of helping to facilitate the tremendous growth that happens during freshman year. But what I didn’t realize was this: I’m teaching freshman!

My freshman are fun, sweet, and energetic. But boy are they energetic! They can’t really focus for long, need constant reminders and clarification, and are bouncing with energy. I forgot what this was like and need to adjust accordingly. This month, I need to remember what it’s like to teach freshman and work on focusing their energy for learning. The energy is positive but nervous, and it’s filled with potential.

#BreakoutEDU Success

My Sophomores completed Time Warp in #BreakoutEDU in record time last Friday. With little explanation, all eighteen students searched for clues, discussed the locks, and worked together to break out. It was the best any Breakout game has ever gone in my class, and these students were so full of curiosity and a passion for inquiry. In the end, a student accidentally stumbled on the code for the last lock and popped it open, but they still wanted to go back and solve the puzzles.

I’ve taught tenth grade for a really, really long time, and decided to bring some new ideas into the course this year. This experience makes me excited for the challenges ahead and to push my students in new directions.

Names and Relationships

Like I’ve written about previously (see Starting the New School Year by Putting Relationships First), I’m really focused on building strong relationships this year. From learning names and student interests to critical thinking and collaboration challenges, I’m trying it all. It’s been a lot of fun and I think has already helped establish culture and climate. I’m eager to see how this translates to improved learning outcomes and long-term relationships. Tomorrow, I’m having my sophomores evaluate and reflect on their progress so far, and I’m curious to see how they view the balance of traditional and new approaches.

#StuckOn

The ideas above will stick with me as successes and some challenges. But here are the things that I’m stuck on so far, and need to put more thought into.

#BreakoutEDU Trial and Error

As great as #BreakoutEDU was with my sophomores, it didn’t go so great with the freshman. Part of that is because of the energy I described above: I need to work on helping them focus and apply themselves. Jumping right into a challenging game with autonomy was difficult for them. We need to work on persistence, critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving.

But I also need to work on beta testing new games. We created a custom game for the freshman and it was a challenge. Parts of it were great, but I realize now how hard this kind of creation really is. I got lucky last year, when my creation was pretty successful. I need a better system of beta testing and improving it for next time. For me, and for my students, it’s about the learning process, so we all have room to grow.

PBL and Grading

When I wrote about 5 Shifts for My Classroom in 2016, I discussed rethinking grades and project-based learning. I simply haven’t made enough progress here. I love the work I’ve done with my students and planned so far, but I again want to write about these plans here as a sort of contract with my readers and myself. I’m moving towards self-assessment and reflection with my tenth graders, but I need a better understanding of the PBL to make more meaningful change to my teaching. That’s one of the big goals I’ll keep coming back to.

My hope is to return to the #WhatStuck and #StuckOn approach every few weeks and to watch my ideas shift and evolve. Let’s see how it goes.

#WhatStuck for you to start the school year? And what are you #StuckOn? Share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

Four years ago, when Chromebooks were new and my students were logging on for the first time, I dedicated days of class time to exploration, practice, and play. We learned how to navigate the apps launcher, customize settings, and turn in work, developing technical skills that would later be leveraged to enhance learning. Most of it was isolated from class content, focusing instead on building comfort and relationships. And for years, that strategy worked well.

But in the last few years, I’ve reconsidered this idea, asking myself: do we still need to teach students to use technology? Back then, the question was more about whether or not we really needed technology. Now, it’s shifted to a focus on how and when to implement it meaningfully and effectively.

In my dual roles as a teacher and coach, these are questions that are asked a lot, especially at the start of the year. And this year, my approach is really changing--I will no longer directly teach technology. Instead, I want to develop meaningful applications (and review) of the tools to jump right into relationship building, inquiry, exploration, and learning. The technology should never stand on its own, but should be embedded in content and skills.

Building Capacity

As always, context matters. I know that all of last year’s eighth and ninth graders used Chromebooks and Google Classroom, so I can feel more comfortable jumping right in. Communities are new to the freshman, so I’ll spend a little more time letting them explore the platform. It’s amazing to see how we have built capacity for regular technology use for both teachers and students in the past few years. Now I know that we can use it, so it’s time to return to the questions of when, how, and why.

Developing Skills

The best teaching, in my experience, combines skills and content. We don’t study literary elements or vocabulary in isolation in my English class, but to develop deeper understandings of literature. Similarly, use of technology should help to personalize students’ learning, developing skills like citizenship, autonomy, and perseverance. These 21st century skills should be applied in every classroom and can be embedded in any content or subject area.

Teaching for Learning

Despite not directly teaching technology skills to start the school year, it’s important to remember that just because students can use the technology doesn’t always mean that they’re ready to use it effectively in their learning. I love the quote above, which I’ve heard in many different forms, and it’s true: students will often learn to use technology on their own. But it’s our job as educators to make sure that they use it responsibly, effectively, and to enhance learning. For example, my students know how to use Twitter and Snap Chat, but when we backchannel in class or use Snap Chat for a QR code reader, students often need scaffolding, models, and instruction to make the most out of these tools.

In the end, as usual, it’s about knowing your students, their comfort and experiences, and your goals. Sometimes it pays to let them play and explore with technology without academic pressure---that type of play often pays off with a deeper understanding of the tools. And I hope I don’t need to teach anyone to join us on Google Classroom--they have the experience and each other. But when we need to change advanced sharing settings on Docs for the first time, I might make my technology instruction a little more explicit.

The bottom line for me--in all of my teaching this year--is to trust students to learn, iterate, adapt, and persevere. I think we will all be better off for it.

How do you incorporate technology instruction to start the school year? What technology skills or experiences are essential for your students? Share in the comments or @MrSchoenbart.

About Me

Adam is a high school teacher, technology coach, Google for Education Certified Trainer, and EdD candidate. He is one of the National School Board Association's “20 to Watch” Educational Technology Leaders for 2016. He is also the co-founder of The Education Calendar, a crowdsourced map and calendar of education events worldwide. Adam teaches in New York in a 1:1 Chromebook classroom and blogs about teaching and educational technology at aschoenbart.com. He can be reached at aschoenbart@gmail.com and would love to connect on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.